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Boston.com forum post: 2/8/06

Commenting on Babygirl1979’s statement:

“I bought a home 2 yrs ago and the area was not for me a real estate agent raved about the home and said the market is in great shape. This was last JULY!”

Was the agent acting as (1) a listing agent, (2) your buyer broker with a contract stating such, or (3) a dual / designated agent? Someone earlier suggested a “buyers’ strike,” but what if you’ve already purchased and now you’re watching real estate prices fall? If the agent was supposed to be your advisor, do you have recourse against them for telling you the market was “in great shape”? If not you personally, what if other recent buyers become victims of falling home prices and sell at a loss? What if they were advised by “dual agents” or “designated agents” and only now realize that conflict of interest contributed to bad advice? Might that be grounds for a class action lawsuit instead of a buyer strike?

“As we have decreased our home $30,000 below appraised value on the market and after 8 mo on the market finally got a offer was for low asking price but they requested we pay all their closing expenses as well as our own. It is crazy…”

Did you sell for below appraised value or below assessed value? If the former, it could be worse. The link below shows a map of SF & MF homes in Newton (priced over $500,000) that have sold over the past six months for BELOW their assessed value. (Note, these calculations were based on tax assessments at the time of the sale, not the recent increases so the situation is likely to get worse.)

http://tinyurl.com/7tg7x

No Recession but mortgage defaults will drag housing prices down

NPR just posted this link to Robert Siegel’s interview this evening with MIT economist Bill Wheaton: Expert: Mortgage Defaults Won’t Key Recession

Thus far there is no audio online and the transcript is pending.  So home sellers should recheck the link above before jumping to an overly optimistic conclusion.  At the end of January, Wheaton predicted that Housing prices could decline another 20% in Greater Boston and other markets nationwide, particularly those where housing prices were inflated by subprime lending.  So home buyers, no need to rush your offers if housing will be a multiyear economic drag, right?

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